Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama gestures during a televised address to Albanians in Tirana, Albania, Friday. Rama turned down a request by the United States to be part of an operation to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile.

TIRANA, Albania — The international effort to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons was dealt a major blow Friday when staunch American ally Albania rejected a U.S. request to let the destruction take place on its soil.

The surprise refusal by the small and impoverished Balkan country left the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons without a country to host the eradication of Syria’s estimated 1,000-metric ton arsenal, which includes mustard gas and sarin.

Syria has said it wants the weapons destroyed outside the country, which is in the middle of a raging civil war, and the OPCW has described that scenario as the “most viable” option.

The OPCW had no immediate comment on its next step.

Albania had been considered its strongest hope, and few diplomats expected the NATO country of 2.8 million people to reject what Prime Minister Edi Rama said had been a direct request from the U.S.

But the plan was unpopular in Albania, and young protesters had camped outside Rama’s office to oppose it, fearing it would be a health and environmental hazard.

In a televised address from the capital of Tirana, Rama said that it was “impossible for Albania to take part in this operation” — an announcement that was greeted by a loud cheer from some of the 2,000 protesters.

Rama said he rejected the request because other countries, which he did not identify, were not prepared to be a part of the operation.

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jan Psaki said the decision would not hurt U.S.-Albanian relations.

“We appreciate Albania looking seriously at hosting the destruction of chemical weapons,” she said. “The international community continues to discuss the most effective and expeditious means for eliminating Syria’s chemical weapons program in the safest manner possible.”

Albania is one of only three nations worldwide that have declared a chemical weapons stockpile to the OPCW and destroyed it. Nations including the U.S. and Russia also have declared stockpiles, but have not yet completed their destruction.

Tirana has been an avid supporter of Washington since the U.S. and NATO intervened with airstrikes in 1999 to stop a crackdown by Serb forces on rebel ethnic Albanians in neighboring Kosovo.

“Without the United States, Albanians would never have been free and independent in two countries that they are today,” Rama said in an apologetic speech. “Without the United States, today there would surely be no demonstrations about chemical weapons.”

The plan was unpopular.

“We don’t have the infrastructure here to deal with the chemical weapons. We can’t deal with our own stuff, let alone Syrian weapons,” said 19-year-old architecture student Maria Pesha, among the protesters camped out overnight outside Rama’s office. “We have no duty to obey anyone on this, NATO or the U.S.”

Albania has had problems with ammunition storage in the past.

In 2008, an explosion at an ammunition dump at Gerdec near Tirana killed 26 people, wounded 300 others and destroyed or damaged 5,500 houses. Investigators said it was caused by a burning cigarette in a factory where some 1,400 tons of explosives, mostly obsolete artillery shells, were stored for disposal.

Wherever and whenever it happens, the destruction of Syria’s weapons will be overseen by experts from the Hague-based OPCW, which won the Nobel Peace Prize this year for its efforts to eradicate poison gas around the world.